But how was Eddie supposed to explain whether what he detected was the smell of a wholemeal loaf of bread, a croissant or a scone?
Hi Carana !
Eddie was working : kind of playing for him but a task with a beginning and an end and a reward whether he found the scent or not. Some handlers even use a special long trail as a signal for the dog that "the" task has started.
So I don't doubt Eddie was smelling the odour he's been trained to alert to. He was smelling or thought he was smelling ? Who knows if dogs can be abused by their memories ?
Hi Anne.
From what I can gather, these dogs had an affectionate "home" life when they were not working.
I presume that there must be some kind of signal to tell them when they were in work mode - otherwise they would be alerting to any minor incident at "home" which would make "home" life somewhat complicated.
My issue is that Eddie doesn't just react to the odour of a dead person, but also to other decomposing substances which could be totally irrelevant to the work task.
Would (e.g.) a bloodied bandaid from the foot of an occupant from a week or more prior to this inspection, perhaps removed during cleaning, or perhaps not swept from under a bed, have generated this response, or not?
Did they move the beds to check if anything innocent was underneath?
Did they turn over the mattresses to check?
ETA: Was a cleaning employee ever asked (who would have been responsible for the post-disappearance cleaning duties)?
